Robert Murray, coal baron
from Public Citizen
Public Citizen has been sued by Big Coal.
This summer, we ran radio ads highlighting the fact that Murray Energy—one of the largest independent coal mining companies in the country, and a major opponent of rules intended to avert catastrophic climate change—is trying to block stronger protections for America’s coal miners and the air we all breathe.
Now Murray Energy has sued us over those ads.
Murray Energy has a history of trying to silence its critics by suing them.
*Public Citizen, of course, will not be silenced by Big Business. But, unfortunately, we now have to devote resources that should be going into substantive work to instead defend ourselves from a baseless legal attack.*
Here are a few things to note about Murray Energy:
- Nine people died in 2007 when a mine operated by Murray Energy subsidiaries in Utah collapsed
- with such force that it registered as a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. The tragedy followed, in the words of the U.S. Department of Labor, “repeated failure to revise the design, despite knowledge that it was inadequate to protect miners from bursting coal pillars.”
- According to a CNN report in 2008, a single Murray Energy mine in Illinois racked up nearly 3,500 safety citations in a span of just two and half years. – In 2012, the company mandated that its employees attend a Mitt Romney rally. And it didn’t even pay them that day.
- Leading up to the 2012 election, the company, its PAC and its employees spent more than $2.8 million on lobbying and campaign contributions. Shortly after the election
- saying “we cannot bleed cash”—the company laid off 163 workers.
- This past spring, Murray Energy ended medical coverage for 1,200 retirees of another mining company it had acquired 16 months earlier. *Murray Energy’s lawsuit against Public Citizen is the desperate act of a member of an industry engaged in a losing battle against the tide of history.*
Make a donation today to help us fight this wasteful lawsuit and get back to the real work of defending health, safety and democracy. [ https://secure.citizen.org/p/salsa/donation/common/public/?donate_page_KEY=8201&track=w15idMrry1007a ]